I’m currently working on a new itteration of my online presences, bringing my portfolio & blog under one roof. I thought I would share a video that has/is really inspiring my processes — Vanishing Point. Beautifully executed and with all the right ingredients… juxtaposition / form / colour.

Twittigami are 3 free twitter icons, designed in an origami style. They are currently available in 256px & 128px versions.

It’s the result of feeling inspired & having a few hours free at the weekend. I don’t mind how you use them so long as I get a mention (Creative Commons Attribution).

Download Twittigami (1st Draft). Also, don’t forget to shout out if you like it!

On Friday I received a copy of the It’s Nice That Publication, Issue 1 of their bi-annual blog review. The content is as you would expect, fantastic. Lot’s of really great work from the past 6 months as well as some really interesting (& different) articles.

If your not convinced by my snaps you can see even more, including shots of it coming off the press (awesome!) on the It’s Nice That Flickr. The first issue is £10, and you can buy it direct from INT via Paypal for £10

Presenting an alternative icon for Mamp in the style of the Adobe Creative Suite.

If like me, your not a massive fan of the original Mamp icon then you probably resent (that’s a bit strong handed i’ll give you) having it in your beautiful dock. Especially if it’s sat next to the CS4 suite. So I spent some time knocking up a quick alternative in the adobe style.

Download it for free, with instructions
Please do not hot-link this file

On the eve of World War 2 (1939), 2.5 Million Keep Calm posters were printed, to be distributed in the event of a national catastrophe

Luckily, they remained in storage throughout the war. The poster is actually from a series of three.”Freedom is in Peril” and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” where also printed.

Following the end of WWII, all but two (known) original copies where pulped, it wasn’t until 2000 that one was discovered by a bookseller who reproduced them and the internet took it by storm!

You can get Keep Calm apparel from the KeepCalm store

“The great benefit of being in the arts [is that] the possibility for learning never disappears…” – Milton Galser

The videos over at Hilman Curtis are always pretty inspiring but I wanted to bring particular attention to this one, it features Milton Glaser, arguably one of the most influential graphic designers.

Probably most famous for his I heart NY logo he is someone that has always inspired me, he has an impressively diverse portfolio – both in terms of style and mediums that spans many decades and is now teaching. Anyway I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

In a bid to free up more spare time, this year I’m making a more conscious effort to get organised and stay on top of things. I’ve started using this amazing, letterpressed year calendar from Magma in Covent Garden as a visual heads up on what’s going on this month.

Also if your interested I’ve also recently purchased Things from Cultured Code, it’s a project management app for mac ($49.99). The UI is fantastic and the whole experience is really polished – every apple app should be this good! I think if we are being honest then this is what is really helping me get organised, but the calendar is beautiful!

This corian timepiece is amazing, made by Alvin Aronson he says the idea behind the project was to add a new characteristic to the digital mediation of time, a physical / third dimension. “The time between 0 and 1″.

Here is one more video of the clock (not as good quality). Really, what an amazing piece of design to kick off the new year with!

I also just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has been reading geenius. I hope you all had a fantastic winter break and are starting the new year on a high (or hangover?). I can’t wait to see what 2009 has in store.

Atelier BomDesign in the Netherlands have been making these amazing chairs and birdhouses out of discarded materials (mainly old billboards). Covered with old type and bright colours, no two are the same – in a word, beautiful. Birdhouses are 99 euro each and can be bought online, i get the impression the chairs are all bespoke… mmm bespoke!

I was watching an interview with Chip Kidd, a book cover designer on iTunes. He was talking about his experiences, the medium & his creative process etc and it really inspired me to look in more depth at this discipline.

This post was a round up of my favourite designs, i’m not saying they are all classics but they stand out to me for one reason or another; type, photography or simply the way they are framed.

As for the video, it definitely struck a cord with me. Anyone who has that sort of passion for what they do has my respect. Jacket design hadn’t really even crossed my mind in terms of career… While I appreciate a good cover, I hadn’t really grasped that it would be possible to design covers for a living. Perhaps it’s only the elite few that are able to actually make a career from such a niche?

I think most importantly it inspired me to give a little hat-tip to everyone who is passionate about what they do – especially to those who are not getting noticed for it!